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Middle Aged Woman knows how good computer karma works - she offered to print a picture of ME. What a great idea!! I should be on the wall of everyone's house. Like in the closet. Or behind the canned foods. Under the kitchen sink maybe...

I actually moved within that year, but it still somehow made it on my desk through the move. And there it sat for a full 364 days.

So at 9:30 pm, on the night it expires, I decided I should call in and make a reservation.

Oh-and did you know that when you have a free ticket voucher and want to claim it, you have to mail it to the airline (at least 14 days in advance of your flight) or take it to the airport representative?

Remember 15 seconds ago when you read that my voucher expires today? Yeah, so I guess I'm off to the airport (sucks).

All three of the nice representatives in India assured me that as long as I had reservations today, I could take my voucher to the airport tomorrow. We'll see if this really works. And after I pay for $20 parking and stand in line for an hour and hate the world, they best just confirm my reservations or we're gonna have some non-TSA approved behaviors goin on. I might bring a 12oz bottle of shampoo so they really feel threatened.

Anyway.....I know you're all losing sleep over the mystery around this---so-----relax, here's the final answer:

San Diego is the lucky city that shall receive my son and I for a long weekend of fun. Mostly because my sister and her family are there, but also because of this little guy:

How cute is he? Don't you just want to tie his little legs together (safety first!) and hug him until he cries really loud and his mama comes charging at you from out of nowhere and the next thing you know you are in the hospital, but you'll always remember that special hug you shared? Yes. Of course you do-he's effing adorable. And all his zoo-ly friends will be too!! I want to feed a giraffe!! Is this worth the cost? Maybe!!!

The San Diego Zoo is one of the best ever, right? And once you get past that whole ethical dilemma of whether it's right for us to cage creatures for our own entertainment, the zoo is a wonderful place to be.

I think we're also going to try to make it to Six Flags, where we shall ride the rides til we puke. And we'll just hang out with the family and laugh and play games.

We're not leaving for at least 6 weeks, so don't come try to burglarize my stuff yet. I have two guard cats and a surly teenager. You do not want to enter uninvited.

In addition, each serving is packed with five grams of fiber (20 percent of the daily recommended fiber intake, according to the Institute of Medicine), which can help keep you full, making sticking to a diet easier.

I actually barely got to taste these because Andrew gobbled these up quickly!! They really are good!!! I typically eat one granola bar for breakfast, so these low calorie, high fiber ones are perfect.

General Mills sent us a box to try along with some fitness supplies (are they spying on me?? do they know how badly I need these type of things??): A water bottle - perfect size for my treadmill cup holder and will help prevent a repeat of an unfortunate water spilling incident, a pedometer, and a journal to write down your healthy habits and food you ate for the day:I am going to start using this next week. I really hate the idea of allowing food to be such a huge part of my day that I have to track it, however, we have seen what happens when I don't (visit pics from 2000 vs 2009!).

General Mills has also offered one of these gift packs up to a lucky fan of my beloved blog.

To enter:

Leave a comment sharing what one small change you made that helped improve your health.

I would say cutting out my two-soda a day habit has definitely helped me.

Extra entries:Leave an extra comment if you follow/subscribe to my blog.Leave an extra comment if you entered any of my other current giveaways (check the sidebar).Leave an extra comment if you blog about this giveaway (and leave the link to the giveaway post).

Giveaway closes on March 12th at midnight.

Please make sure you have a public profile or leave your email address in your comment.

Fiber One provided this gift pack and is sponsoring the giveaway via MyBlogSpark. Thanks ya'll!

I was a little hesitant to share this, but I'm certain I can be stalked at any moment anyway with all the info I already put out there (this is not an invitation to stalk me)(unless you're George Clooney)...but just to have a little conclusion to the whole "I'm a Hero" thing....I present to you.....

Our Volunteer Award video.TA-DA!!

It's just 3.5 minutes.Featuring ME!!!

And young Andrew!!!

And Alison!

And a host of other volunteer friends.

Enjoy. And hopefully we can now stop talking about it.And then go sign up to volunteer somewhere.

And if you don't want to get out or are unable to easily go volunteer, you can visit this website and find the information on terminally ill children who would love to receive a homemade card from you.

Are you watching The Amazing Race?You should be - it's just a fun show. I like the challenges the teams face and I love the travel aspect.

We were actually in Korea when The Amazing Race came through, but we didn't know what it was....we saw cameras and lots of huge flags while we were driving by in a taxi. It was the first season and we had no idea what was going on so we missed our chance to be in the show! The Amazing Race also came to Portland a couple years ago...I missed that chance too. I guess I just don't care that much...

Anyway, this season there are some cowboys on the show. And I highly dislike them. Here are just a few reasons why:

** Spoiler ahead**Reason #1:I can't tell them apart, but one or both of them said "Oh my gravy" at least 5 times in the first 20 minutes of the show.

Reason #2 (which signifies at least 100 reasons to dislike them):Travelling on a boat, sitting next to each other on a bench:One cowboy says "I've been skinny dipping once or twice."The other cowboy looks at him and then scoots away from him on the bench.They both look at each other and give a little laugh.

hi, homophobic much, stereotypical cowboys?

Reason #3: Illegal use of the English language. Saying things like: "Look at all them clues." Ugh.

Reason #4:They won first in this leg of the race and I don't want them to win anything. Ever.

Anyone watching? Have a least favorite team yet? Do they happen to wear large ten-gallon hats?

Here I am!!! You've probably missed me....I've been really busy. I can't remember the last time I didn't get online for an entire day---but I did it on Saturday!! Granted I do get my email on my smartphone....but I didn't reply to mail and I didn't check facebook and I didn't read any blogs! It was kinda nice....I might do it again sometime.

Saturday was also the day I turned 36.

36!!! I'm totally on the downswing of life. I'm up and over the hill. I'm on my way down. It's sad.

I had a great birthday party with a group of friends.

You know what's really fun? Taking TONS of pictures on your special day. You know what is even more fun? Checking your camera the next day and finding that you took about 57 pictures after you drank 4 margaritas and 2 Mikes Hard Lemonades and they are all a blurry mess.

Here's how the night began: Nice, crisp and clear picture. 4 of these 5 people on the couch come to my house frequently. We are a good group, just ask us. We really are.

You might remember this guy from the last margarita night:

Delicious drinks! The problem with making really great margaritas is that every time you come over after that time, you will be expected to be the margarita maker always and forever.

And then I have about 49 pictures like this:

Just blurry. Blurry and pointless. Most of which cut people in half. And one of the girls attending the party didn't want her photo taken....so I, of course, saw this as a challenge. I have approximately 20 photos of her with her hands in front of her face. And blurry.

Go to volunteer luncheon to receive an award in front of 400 people with my son.

Completely forget to follow my speech, which I made a point to make inspirational and meaningful, but instead, I pretended I was on my own 4-minute comedy tour and go the funny route, not the sentimental route.

Get called a hero multiple times (I'm not) and have a speaker tell me that I am one of the greatest mothers and I am an inspiration.

Take wonderful photo in the beautiful weather (is this really February??) with the parents.Go home and put flowers in vase- I got three dozen today!!!

Fall asleep on the couch playing stupid-Facebook-Scrabble against Andrew, who was sitting next to me.

Wake up to have dinner and drive to the library.

Gave my 94 yr old friend Selma a ride home.

Took a warm bath and enjoyed a candle, a vase of roses and a good book.

Remember my gal, Selma? The sweet little ole lady who gathers cans in our city and who may or may not have considered shanking me the other night?

I ran into her again tonight. It was raining and it was late and it was not really an option for me not to offer her a ride.

We talked about her schedule - she leaves every morning and walks a mile to catch the bus into our downtown area, she usually gets downtown about noon. She then spends the day hanging out by the recycling center at Fred Meyers, or Haggens, or sometimes Safeway (which is 1.3 miles away and she says takes her an hour to walk) and then up to Thriftway (which is FIVE miles from Fred Meyers). She does this all day, every day. And then usually sometime around 5:30-6:30, there is a couple of people who will offer her a ride home (on a dark deserted road in the middle of nowhere) on their way home from work, if they see her. If they don't, she will just wait around until someone comes by and offers a ride or sometimes she'll have to walk.

I asked her if she ever just wakes up and decides not to leave and she said, "If I do that one day, then I'll want to do it again the next day. And if I do it two days in a row, I might never get out of my chair at all."

True. I know that feeling. Sometimes I come home and never want to leave my couch. But I force myself to....and Selma forces herself out of the house every day.

She's 94 years old!! I just love her. I want to just sit down and talk to her forever. She was telling me about how she remembers watching tv for the first time and how there really isn't anything to watch on tv anymore, but she actually made a point to say - well, nothing that I want to watch, I'm sure there are things you like to watch.

And that's really sweet if you think about it. How many times do we (all of us do this) just say something negative about a generic something and make it all encompassing without really considering that we all just have different tastes? Too frequently. She made a point of letting me know that she wasn't passing judgement on whether I like the programming on tv these days - she just doesn't care for it herself. She is NOT a crotchety old lady. She is a thoughtful one, not in the very least bit crotchety!! I love her.

Here's the best part: she wanted to give me something for the ride and I said she didn't have to, but she really wanted to....and so I accepted her gift....i.t was a super large size gatorade and two yogurts. In a Taco Bell bag. I said - thanks so much, my son can have these for breakfast!And she responded: Well, I hope they are good.Ha, um, yeah, me too.

I had a nice relaxing Sunday morning before my volunteer event and felt really good about how quickly I got ready and then I headed outside to leave and found this:

And I know some stupid teenagers were feeling REALLY proud of themselves last night.

The investigation on the culprits is still ongoing.

Then I got to my volunteer event and the large room I reserved was under some kind of construction and we had to use a small room, and since I hadn't planned to rearrange rooms and move tables, it was a total mess of confusion as people were coming in and I was rushing about to get set up on time. And then I lost my phone. And then everyone showed up and it was PACKED. And then I started with my normal speech I give and stuttered all about in frustration and with worry over my missing phone. And then we got started and ten minutes into the project, as I'm still searching for my phone, someone mentioned that we had no markers/crayons. They were in the backpack-in my garage. A mile away.

TP-cleaning Andrew was able to bring the backpack of markers and save the day, and then I found my phone-on a windowsill in the room (of course). Still a flustered mess of a morning....because of some stupid teenagers who had $4 to spare on a 6-pack of toilet paper.

Apparently 7 out of 10 Americans do not consume the daily recommended amount of fruit - I def do not think me and the kid do...

I was offered this wonderful gift pack from Yoplait to try their new Smoothie products. And I absolutely LOVE it! The packet comes with this wonderful little blender that is a perfect two-person serving size, which is great for the two of us in our household. I tend to avoid our full-size blender because it's so big and bulky and has to be disassembled to clean. It's too much work to make a drink for two of us. But this little guy rocks:With the blender was a coupon for a bag of the new Yoplait Smoothie mix. It's a bag of frozen berries all ready to go. Very convenient. The

Every Yoplait Smoothie contains a full serving of fruit as well as real Yoplaityogurt pieces with live & active cultures. Yoplait Smoothies are a goodsource of calcium when prepared with milk according to directions, and anexcellent source of antioxidant vitamin C. Simply add milk to a Yoplait freezerpackage, blend, and in less than two minutes you can enjoy a nutritious anddelicious smoothie guilt free! At 110 calories per serving, Yoplait FrozenSmoothies make creating the at-home smoothie convenient, simple and worry free.

You can save $1.25 off one package of Yoplait Frozen Smoothies now, but if you enter the giveaway, you'll get the blender and the coupon for a free pack.

Here's how easy it is to make these:

Add a bit of milk, pour in the berry mix. Push button, stopping now and again to stir the mix so it blends more evenly.

Pour mixture into glasses.

Enjoy with your friends! (or your sons friends)

It's that easy!!! And then you just rinse that little blender thing out and call it good.

I really love these and I bought a bunch of extra packs of the Yoplait mixes. I also bought other berries to add in with their mix. I don't always get to the fresh fruit before it goes bad and that discourages me from buying fruit, so these packs are great for someone like me.

To enter:Leave a comment with a line or two about how you try to get in your daily amount of fruit.

Extra entries:

Leave an extra comment if you follow/subscribe to my blog.

Leave an extra comment if you entered any of my other current giveaways (check the sidebar).

Leave an extra comment if you blog about this giveaway (and leave the link to the giveaway post).

Giveaway closes on March 1st at midnight.

Disclaimer: The FTC, the FCC and the PTA want me to make sure you are aware that the coupon, blender, information and additional prize pack to give away were all given to me from Yoplait and MyBlogSpark.

We love sweet potatoes/yams, and I have tried to make these once before and ended up with just a pile of mush. I'm not sure what I did wrong but I tried again and ohmygod-these are the best food EVER.

A tomato basil pizza burger (meat free of course) grilled on the bbq, with a toasted bun, topped with fresh onions, tomatoes, lettuce and a bit of avocado, with my newest love-sweet potato fries.

For those of you not in the know (like I was before last night), this is how you make them:

Wash your sweet potatoes. The skin is really good for you and they taste great this way! I prepared 3 large ones, but really only needed 2.

Cut the sweet potatoes into strips that look somewhat like fries.

Toss in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Shake them all around cause that's what professionals do.

Spread on a cookie sheet in one nice layer.

Salt and pepper if you're into that kind of thing. I used just a light smatter of salt. Cause that's what professionals do.

Bake at 425 - after 15 minutes, flip them over. After 20 min, take them out of the oven, but let them sit for at least 5 minutes to help the crispiness effect. I totally made that up, I don't have any idea if the waiting helped anything.

ENJOY!!!!!!!!

The BEST fry I have ever had in my entire life. AND very healthy to boot!!! I want to eat these at least 5X a week. Andrew ruined them by drowning them in ketchup. He does not deserve my sweat potato fries!!!

I might have to figure out a way to make them in my toaster oven to save me from having to heat my oven to 425 each night, which might cost me $20 each time, but might cost me 20cents. I have no idea...but I think it's a lot.

The way I'm making them keeps them really low-calorie and very nutritious.

Anybody else know about this secret recipe? Is there anything you do to tweak it?Not to make it better, because these could not get any better!!

This is the month where I age a *teeny* bit more. On February 20th, I'm going to be THIRTY-SIX years old. (it's more dramatic spelled out)

My 36th year is going to be wonderful. I'm ready for it. Bring it on. I feel like time is just slipping away from me. Just the other day I was 30. And the day before that, I was 25. So for my 36th bday, I am going to do more seizing the day, and less just sitting about. More on that later...

I emailed some close friends and asked them to save the date for my bday and we would go out to dinner before my actual b-day party. One wonderful friend emailed back and asked what I would like for a gift. And that got me thinking....

Ten years ago, I had just finished college and I had a young child and a job at a nonprofit that I loved, but which didn't pay my bills every month. I lived a sparse life and many times had to use my gas card to get enough gas to get to work. Then I had to use my credit card for food some months. My ex wasn't paying his half of the daycare (required by our court agreement, but only enforceable if I actually go to court with a bill and demand he pay it) and I was constantly struggling to keep my son in a daycare center. For a while, my car had a bad radiator and I literally had to fill it with water before starting it. EVERY time I went to start it. Point being - ten years ago, life was hard. Very hard.

Looking at my life now, where I still somewhat live paycheck to paycheck, but we live a good life - I own my own house, we have money to eat out, I have money for gas, guitar lessons, and clothing...life is good.

So when I was asked what I would like - I immediately thought of how fun it would be to have all my birthday gifts in the form of a donation. Maybe a food drive....but everyone does food drives. Boring. I wanted to make it different and fun and something that people would want to join in because it is different. My team at work had volunteered at our local food bank a couple months ago and they had one section that had toiletries and such, but there was only about six bottles of shampoo. The first six people in the door that day got shampoo, a nice treat from the food bank. And so with that thought in my head---- I am planning a Bubbly Birthday this year and asking for donations to my Shampoo Drive.

Fun, right?

Even more fun----I had one person at work donate 7 bottles before I even really had all my details together. And last night, a friend brought me 3 bags full!!!!

My goal is 150 bottles by Feb 20th.

I am thinking this will not be a problem. I sent a few emails out at work and people seem very eager to help. I work in an office with about 300 people. It shouldn't be hard for me to get close to 100 just from work, right?? I hope not.

I'll keep you all posted as it goes on. I have two weeks to get 150 bottles. Alison is helping and has some workmates offer some up already too! This isn't going to be hard!!

Anyone else want to join in? Host a Shampoo Drive in your area, see how much your friends can come up with...it's really not hard and every little bit helps!

It's so simple and easy, and having someone give you an unexpected bottle or two of shampoo is such a joy.

I have a low-income housing complex I'm working with and they'll get some of our donations and then the rest will go to our local food pantry. Stay tuned for pictures.

I love their website - when you type in the specs on the size you're thinking about, it helps you figure out what the size looks like on a wall (for those of us who are challenged with sizing guesstimations). This is cute:

Here's your poster next to an uncomfortable couch and a small lady, who announces her tiny size. Love it.

Can I point out that this is most definitely not a room in my house? Really - what's with that bed??

To enter:

Leave a comment saying what picture you think you would like to have enlarged if you win. I would probably choose a scenic shot.

Extra entries:Leave an extra comment if you follow/subscribe to my blog.Leave an extra comment if you entered any of my other current giveaways (check the sidebar).Leave an extra comment if you blog about this giveaway (and leave the link to the giveaway post).

Giveaway closes on February 26th at midnight.

And for some reason, the FBI, the FCC, and Oprah want me to be sure to tell you all that I will receive the same product for hosting the giveaway. No money was exchanged and no threats/coercions were given to get me to post this. It's my opinion, blahblahblah.

If you go on vacation and take 600 pictures, then go to the trouble of organizing them into four folders in a very organized way...don't just print out random photos. This seems like fun at the time, however, when you go to prepare your photos for scrapbooking later, you're going to spend an extra two hours determining which ones you've already printed and which ones still need printing.

Here's an exhilerating video of a bird we walked the beach with for at least half a mile, just walking in the surf, hanging out, becoming buddies. Good luck making it through the whole video.

I have a scrappy Irish friend who, back in his wild and crazy youth, got in a bit of trouble. He told me about numerous fights he got in over the years - and I was fascinated - as someone who is sweet and innocent and rarely never gets in fights, this one story stuck with me.

He was with a bunch of friends and he and his friends were outnumbered and were very clearly losing the fight (which they probably started). My friend was a drunken fool but very clearly remembers one of the guys in the other group yelling "kick him til he pukes!!!" over and over again. And my friend very clearly remembers wishing and praying and begging himself to PUKE PUKE PUKE so the beat-down would end.

Hmm...that sounds violent. Sorry if you are sensitive to that type of thing.

And sometimes when I get my monthly massage, I remember this story. And I imagine the other massage people in the corner of the room, chanting something similar to "rub it til she cries!!" My massage lady tonight found some spot on my calf that she felt she was going to work on until something magical happened. And I lay there quietly and wished and prayed and begged for that magical thing to happen. Cause if you say something - they win. So you tolerate it and you just wait. And then it gets back to feeling wonderful. I LOVE massages (especially when I win).

In the first book, Greg Mortenson worked to fulfill a promise he made to one community, and in doing so, he ended up building a succesful nonprofit: Central Asia Institute that works to bring education to the most remote areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially for girls. Girl Power!

So here's this quiet and shy white man doing amazing things in this foreign country that he is forever linked to simply because he got lost on a climbing trip. Sometimes I get lost....and I just find my way home and dismiss everything on my way. I don't even pay attention to what is around me-I just focus on getting home. Greg got lost....and a whole new life was formed for him. His entire life is now formed around what is going on in random communities on the very far outskirts of countries half a world away from his home.

This book is the next chapter in Greg's life. It does a great job of describing some of the issues that make it difficult to turn monetary donations into something as simple as a 4-walled building that will become the only school in the region. It's not just that they need people to donate money. That's almost the simplest step to get the schools built.

As with most governments, Pakistan and Afghanistan have their own beaurocratic process that is akin to running in a hamster wheel.

And after that hamster wheel is done, there are other wheels that you need to scamper onto...like getting the blessing of the local fighters and/or village chiefs.

And after THAT hamster wheel is done, you have to figure out how to actually get the supplies to the location. This may mean waiting through the harsh winter period before it's possible to transport. Or it might mean travelling miles and miles out of your way because the bridge to get to your location isn't strong enough to carry the supplies. The list goes on and on.

It's not just donating money---again, that's the easy part. It takes a team of people to work out the logistics of this all working. And this team is spearheaded by Greg himself. From a phone in his basement in Montana. Making decisions with people who are on the ground in Pakistan. It's just insane to think about.

I suspect that nothing that most of us do will ever compare to the amazing legacy that Greg Mortenson has created. He has touched millions of lives - with his story, with his books, with his love, with his passion, and with all the countless hours he has devoted to helping children and their communities in another land far from his own.

He's so inspiring. I hope someday that I can do something that even remotely might be a tiny fraction of the awe-inspiring, selfless work he does on a daily basis.

I definitely recommend this book.

You want to read this book if:

You need to be inspired.

You loved Three Cups of Tea and want to know what happens next.

You are interested in stories of normal people doing extraordinary things.

You want to learn about about the plight of growing the education system in Pakistan and/or Afghanistan.

You care about the world.

On a side note, this book was much more heavy than Three Cups of Tea. There was much more history given and more background information about the culture. While I typically enjoy this type of thing, because I like to learn when I read, it did feel a little tiny bit like a book that was teaching me too much. Sometimes you just want a nice feel-good story, but this is not it. Three Cups of Tea was more like that. This one needed a bit more brain power to follow along.

However - if you are used to using your brain all the time, you'll be fine and can disregard this last note. I'm more of a 72% brain-user (on a good day), so again, a bit more of a heavy read than I expected based off the first book.

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Everybody can be great...Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace - A soul generated by love.